Encoding, application and association of radio frequency identification tags on high speed manufacturing lines

Abstract

One of the entry points of radio frequency identification technology in supply chain applications is at the manufacturing line, after production, as packaged goods leave for the next link of the network of suppliers, carriers, distributors and retailers. To RFID-enable packaged products, an RFID device needs to be attached to the packaging and an identification number needs to be generated and stored accordingly. Today, a few early adopters of the technology already started to apply RFID tags to some of their cases and pallets and to collect and store the information. These processes however, are still to a large extent done at a slow pace, manually or in an experimental mode, and that may not be suited for large scale applications. To address this issue, this research document focuses on the implementation of an RFID enabled process under strict time and performance constraints, for case packaged goods and pallets. This document reviews the currently published information on the topic and the Auto-ID technology standards. It analyses system integration challenges, proposes a process for case and pallet level encoding, application and association and discusses some of information systems requirements for the implementation. It proposes a framework of options with the requirements and considerations the author believes to be most relevant.